This recent Netflix movie was a little bit hit ... and a little bit miss. Here's the plot synopsis they give:
From ace action director Stanley Tong comes this explosive action techno-thriller starring Aaron Kwok and popular U.S. stars Mark Dacascos and Coolio. When the elite crime fighting unit Team 808 recruits top Chinese security officer Darren (Kwok) to hunt down a large international drug cartel, he is assisted by the beautiful Japanese Security Officer Noriko. Together, they take on the deadly smugglers (Dacascos & Coolio).
While I am a fan of the genre (I love bad action movies!), this fell a bit short overall. First, the dialogue was definitely a distraction. I know action movies aren't know for their witty repartee or deep conversations, this script was noticeably substandard. I had the closed-captioning on almost the whole movie because I thought it was a dubbed movie, the delivery of the dialogue was so bad! Mark Dacascos (happy happy sexy man) and Coolio are American-born, so their English was fine, but I think we imported a lot of Chinese actors who weren't so fluent for every other role. (I really did think it was a bad dub) I must say that presentation is a big part of a movie for me; while I am forgiving of many things so I can enjoy a bad action flick, I can't stand it when everyone sounds like "Me Tarzan, You Jane."
Second, the plot is nothing new, but then again, when did plot really matter in movies like this one? "Some bad guys are doing something bad and some cops have to stop them." Whoo! I just described probably 90% of all action movies everywhere. What I think was funny was the casting of two Hong Kong actors as the good guys vs. the Americans as the baddies. It was a weird juxtapose, as the bad guys seemed more coherent and realistic with their mastery of the English language. The two cops were very stilted and stereotypical.
Now on to the good. Favorite scene: Mark Dacascos and his bare bum in the bath house. whoo whoo! mmm mmm good! ...OK, now on to being rational and objective. The fight scenes and stunts were pretty bad-ass. Aaron Kwok and Mark Dacascos fight it out in the end, which was a whole lot of round-house kicks to the face. Though, being Asian, Kwok had to do a lot more jumping to reach Dacascos's head. :) The stunts where shiny, but some were also unbelievable: the final fight scene is on top of a skyscraper because the helicopter ran into it and knocked everyone out. But the whole time I was thinking, why didn't the helicopter go around the damn building when it became apparent that it couldn't go over it? Because then the characters would not have been thrown from the helicopter and thus no final fight scene on top of the building, duh. (Also, the chopper explodes for no apparent reason other than to spice up the scene. I like explosions, but I need a reason for something to burst into flames).
If you choose to while away a few hours with this bit of fluff, be sure to watch the credits long enough for the bloopers. I love bloopers for action movies! There was the usual fare of jumps landing badly and kicks missing target and not being in place for a scene, but by far my favorites were much more casual (and less death-defying, for sure). First, the police chief is lecturing the two cops in his office and he has a cup of alka-seltzer on his desk... which overflows and ruins his sense of authority and the whole moment. :) My other favorite was with Mark Dacascos trying to catch a disk thrown his way in the bath scene. He misses the thing so many times, it borders in ineptitude. One toss even goes way over his head and he lunges out of the water trying to catch it. And all the time Coolio is sitting next to him, in character, never changing expression.
Because of it's genre, I feel I have to qualify a rating of the movie. Grouped with all movies, it was pretty bad; maybe only one star max. But when compared to just action movies, I feel that it was just under average. I have definitely seen better (Die Hard) but I have also seen much worse (Street Fighter). I guess I would put it under the category, "I definitely won't own it, probably won't watch it again, but I don't feel I wasted my life by watching it."
From ace action director Stanley Tong comes this explosive action techno-thriller starring Aaron Kwok and popular U.S. stars Mark Dacascos and Coolio. When the elite crime fighting unit Team 808 recruits top Chinese security officer Darren (Kwok) to hunt down a large international drug cartel, he is assisted by the beautiful Japanese Security Officer Noriko. Together, they take on the deadly smugglers (Dacascos & Coolio).
While I am a fan of the genre (I love bad action movies!), this fell a bit short overall. First, the dialogue was definitely a distraction. I know action movies aren't know for their witty repartee or deep conversations, this script was noticeably substandard. I had the closed-captioning on almost the whole movie because I thought it was a dubbed movie, the delivery of the dialogue was so bad! Mark Dacascos (happy happy sexy man) and Coolio are American-born, so their English was fine, but I think we imported a lot of Chinese actors who weren't so fluent for every other role. (I really did think it was a bad dub) I must say that presentation is a big part of a movie for me; while I am forgiving of many things so I can enjoy a bad action flick, I can't stand it when everyone sounds like "Me Tarzan, You Jane."
Second, the plot is nothing new, but then again, when did plot really matter in movies like this one? "Some bad guys are doing something bad and some cops have to stop them." Whoo! I just described probably 90% of all action movies everywhere. What I think was funny was the casting of two Hong Kong actors as the good guys vs. the Americans as the baddies. It was a weird juxtapose, as the bad guys seemed more coherent and realistic with their mastery of the English language. The two cops were very stilted and stereotypical.
Now on to the good. Favorite scene: Mark Dacascos and his bare bum in the bath house. whoo whoo! mmm mmm good! ...OK, now on to being rational and objective. The fight scenes and stunts were pretty bad-ass. Aaron Kwok and Mark Dacascos fight it out in the end, which was a whole lot of round-house kicks to the face. Though, being Asian, Kwok had to do a lot more jumping to reach Dacascos's head. :) The stunts where shiny, but some were also unbelievable: the final fight scene is on top of a skyscraper because the helicopter ran into it and knocked everyone out. But the whole time I was thinking, why didn't the helicopter go around the damn building when it became apparent that it couldn't go over it? Because then the characters would not have been thrown from the helicopter and thus no final fight scene on top of the building, duh. (Also, the chopper explodes for no apparent reason other than to spice up the scene. I like explosions, but I need a reason for something to burst into flames).
If you choose to while away a few hours with this bit of fluff, be sure to watch the credits long enough for the bloopers. I love bloopers for action movies! There was the usual fare of jumps landing badly and kicks missing target and not being in place for a scene, but by far my favorites were much more casual (and less death-defying, for sure). First, the police chief is lecturing the two cops in his office and he has a cup of alka-seltzer on his desk... which overflows and ruins his sense of authority and the whole moment. :) My other favorite was with Mark Dacascos trying to catch a disk thrown his way in the bath scene. He misses the thing so many times, it borders in ineptitude. One toss even goes way over his head and he lunges out of the water trying to catch it. And all the time Coolio is sitting next to him, in character, never changing expression.
Because of it's genre, I feel I have to qualify a rating of the movie. Grouped with all movies, it was pretty bad; maybe only one star max. But when compared to just action movies, I feel that it was just under average. I have definitely seen better (Die Hard) but I have also seen much worse (Street Fighter). I guess I would put it under the category, "I definitely won't own it, probably won't watch it again, but I don't feel I wasted my life by watching it."
----- SPOILER -----
Don't get attached to too many of the good guys; Hong Kong movies have no issue with killing them off... even if it's the day after they get engaged and the scene where they ramble on about wanting a big family.
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